TOKYO, November 1, 2013 – Rakuten, Inc. today announced that it helped roll out the Rakuten Smartpay service for smartphones at all fineDine stores, a food delivery service operated by Ride On Express Co., Ltd, and commenced services on November 1, 2013. Food delivery service fineDine offers an exhaustive menu spanning 200 popular restaurants and more than 4,000 items that it delivers directly to customers’ homes or offices. It delivers to eight areas of Tokyo through its network of stores, including locations such as Naka-Meguro, Azabu, Shinjuku, Takanawa, Ginza, Aoyama, Akasaka and Yoyogi-Uehara.
On this occasion, Rakuten helped roll out Rakuten Smartpay for the smartphone devices used by fineDine’s some 50 delivery drivers, to enable acceptance of credit card payments at a customer’s home or office.
fineDine’s delivery drivers have used company-issued smartphones for order management in the past, and the company introduced Rakuten Smartpay at its Naka-Meguro Store in December 2012 because no initial start-up fee was required, and no special smartphone device needed to be purchased. After implementing the service, the Naka-Meguro Store saw a threefold increase in the number of customers selecting payment by credit card at the time of delivery (comparing payment amounts of January 2013 and September 2013). As a result, Ride On Express decided to roll out Rakuten Smartpay at all of its remaining stores, because of the added convenience for customers when there are more choices to pay for their order.
In addition, Rakuten and freeDinewill implement a joint sales campaign. Through this campaign, Rakuten Card members who pay for a fineDine order using Rakuten Smartpay during the offer period starting November 25 will receive double the Rakuten Super Points.
Going forward, Rakuten stands committed to developing and launching services and campaigns that heighten user convenience.